Summit Dialogue: Ep. 25: Valerie Karplus on the upcoming COP26 Glasgow Summit and China’s Role in it

I was pleased to invite Valerie Karplus into the virtual studio to examine the progress towards the upcoming COP26 Glasgow Summit scheduled for November 1 -12th. Many see this Summit as the best last chance to receive national commitments (NDCs) that will achieve the 45% cut based on 2010 levels, that scientists say is needed by 2030 to limit global heating to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels. Will the key CO2 emitters – the US, China, India, Brazil, etc. be willing to make those kinds of commitments at Glasgow. Valerie and colleagues recently released a new report: “China’s CO2 Emissions Trading System: History, Status, and Outlook”. I was keen to review with Valerie the efforts by China to create a Emissions Trading System (ETS) to reduce carbon emissions. Valerie Karplus is currently an Associate Professor in the department of Engineering and Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon. Previously, Karplus served as an Assistant Professor of Global Economics and Management at the MIT Sloan School of Management. Karplus studies resource and environmental management in firms operating in diverse national and industry contexts. She works with a collaborative team of researchers to study the micro and macro determinants of clean energy transitions in emerging markets, with a focus on China and India. From 2011 to 2015, she directed the MIT-Tsinghua China Energy and Climate Project, a five-year research effort focused on analyzing the design of energy and climate change policy in China, and its domestic and global impacts.